Business Journal: Dunnigan May Be Home To Mini-Prison

The small, Yolo County town of Dunnigan might one day hold a 500 inmate mini-prison.

The plan is for a re-entry facility, which is designed to provide short-timer prisoners with vocational and life skills. Inmates would learn everything from balancing checkbooks to repairing electronics. Re-entry facilities are a new concept in the state prison system. They’re part of a $7.4 billion prison and jail construction program that lawmakers approved last year to reform California’s overcrowded prisons. The first facility of its kind opened in Stockton. Yolo County will receive state funds for increased jail capacity in exchange for helping find a suitable location for it. It could employ 350 workers. The county is researching suitable 15-to-20 acre sites, which will be evaluated by the state in September.